Pop culture was forever transformed when Madonna kissed Britney Spears — and then Christina Aguilera — on stage at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
However, it has often been forgotten that when the Queen of Pop, 65, turned from Spears to kiss the “Dirrty” singer, 42, during the drama-packed event, the camera quickly cut away to show Justin Timberlake’s reaction to his ex’s sapphic smooch.
Now, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, former network president Van Toffler revealed that Aguilera and her team was furious over the split-second decision — and that they lobbied MTV hard to get the soon-to-be-legendary lip lock edited back into the show for future airings.
“[She] caused a little bit of grief coming my way … It didn’t make life easier that night, but you have to make choices in a live show,” Toffler recalled.
The executive went on: “Sometimes you’re wrong and sometimes you’re right, but I think the beauty of the VMAs was the combustibility. You wanted to make it fun and semi-chaotic. That’s what we did.”
Former MTV executive vice president Tom Calderone also spoke with the music bible for a story about that memorable night — he recalled Aguilera’s people demanding the steamy moment go back on the visual record. MTV did not oblige the request at the time.
Aguilera herself has spoken candidly in recent years about the viral on-stage moment.
“It was weird,” she recollected during a chat with Andy Cohen in 2018. “I definitely saw the newspaper the next day and it was like, ‘Oh, well I guess I got left out of that one.’”
Aguilera added that Spears, 41, could “have the kiss,” since she had her own solo moment that night — singing “Fighter,” accompanied by Dave Navarro on guitar.
The sensational snog happened while Spears and Aguilera accompanied Madonna in performing a medley of her hits.
The “Toxic” singer and the “Hurt” musician were dressed in scantily clad white ensemble that resembled bridal wear, while Madonna donned all black — reminiscent of groom attire.
The trio crooned “Like a Virgin,” “Hollywood” and other singles. Rap superstar Missy Elliot joined the frisky threesome on stage at the end of the performance to belt out “Work It.”
Source link
